Moscow (city, Russia)

The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed.

Copyright The Columbia University Press

Moscow (mŏs´kou, –kō), Rus. Moskva, city (1991 est. pop. 8,802,000), capital of Russia and of Moscow region and the administrative center of the Central federal district, W central European Russia, on the Moskva River near its junction with the Moscow Canal. Moscow is Russia's largest city and a leading economic and cultural center. Moscow is governed by a city council and a mayor and is divided into boroughs. The five major sections of Moscow form concentric circles, of which the innermost is the Kremlin (see under kremlin), a walled city in itself. Its walls represent the city limits as of the late 15th cent. The hub of the Russian railroad network, Moscow is also an inland port and has several civilian and military airports. Moscow's major industries include machine building, metalworking, oil refining, publishing, brewing, filmmaking, and the manufacture of machine tools, precision instruments, building materials, automobiles, trucks, aircraft, chemicals, wood and paper products, textiles, clothing, footwear, and soft drinks.

Points of Interest

Adjoining the Kremlin in the east is the huge Red Square, originally a marketplace and a meeting spot for popular assemblies; it is still used as a parade ground and for demonstrations. On the west side of Red Square and along the Kremlin wall are the Lenin Mausoleum and the tombs of other Soviet political figures; on the north side is the completely rebuilt Kazan Cathedral (constructed in the 17th cent., razed by Stalin, and rebuilt in 1993); and at the southern end stands the imposing cathedral of Basil the Beatified (constructed 16th cent.). One of the most exuberant examples of Russian architecture, the cathedral has numerous cupolas, each a different color, grouped around a central dome. In front of the cathedral stands a monument to the liberators Menin and Pozharski.

To the E of Red Square extends the old district of Kitaigorod [Tatar city], once the merchants' quarter, later the banking section, and now an administrative hub with various government offices and ministries. Tverskaya Street (formerly Gorky Street), a main thoroughfare, extends N from the Kremlin and is lined with modern buildings, including the headquarters of the council of ministers; it is connected with the St. Petersburg highway, which passes the huge Dynamo stadium and the central airport. Near the beginning of Tverskaya Street is Theater Square, containing the Bolshoi and Maly theaters. Encircling the Kremlin and Kitaigorod are the Bely Gorod [white city], traditionally the most elegant part of Moscow and now a commercial and cultural area; the Zemlyanoy Gorod [earth city], named for the earthen and wooden ramparts that once surrounded it; and the inner suburbs. In the Bely Gorod is Christ the Savior Cathedral; demolished in 1931 to be replaced by a never-built Palace of Soviets, it was rebuilt in the 1990s. A notable feature of Moscow are the concentric rings of wide boulevards and railroad lines on the sites where old walls and ramparts once stood.

Except for its historical core, Moscow was transformed into a sprawling, often drab, but well-planned modern city under the Soviets. Post-Soviet Moscow has seen renewed construction, including the Triumph-Palace (866 ft/264 m, 2003), which echoes Stalin's Gothic-influenced Seven Sisters skyscrapers and is the tallest building in Europe. The tallest freestanding structure in Moscow is the Ostankino Tower (1967), a broadcast tower and tourist attraction that rises 1,771 ft (540 m). Among Moscow's many cultural and scientific institutions are the Moscow State Univ. (founded 1755), the Russian Academy of Sciences (founded 1725 in St. Petersburg and moved to Moscow in 1934), a conservatory (1866), the Tretyakov art gallery (opened in the 1880s), the Museum of Oriental Cultures, the State Historical Museum, the Agricultural Exhibition, the Institute of World Economy and International Relations (IMEMO), the Plekhanov Economic Academy, the Moscow State Law Academy, the Moscow Energy Institute, and the Peoples' Friendship Univ. of Russia (for foreign students). Theaters include the Moscow Art Theater, the Bolshoi (opera and ballet), and the Maly Theater (drama). Moscow is the see of a patriarch, head of the Russian Orthodox Church. The many large parks and recreation areas include Gorky Central Park, the forested Izmailovo and Sokolniki parks, and Ostankino Park, with its botanical gardens. The ornate subway system opened in 1935.

History

Although archaeological evidence indicates that the site has been occupied since Neolithic times, the village of Moscow was first mentioned in the Russian chronicles in 1147. Moscow became (c.1271) the seat of the grand dukes of Vladimir-Suzdal, who later assumed the title of grand dukes of Moscow (see Moscow, grand duchy of). During the rule of Dmitri Donskoi the first stone walls of the Kremlin were built (1367). Moscow, or Muscovy, achieved dominance through its location at the crossroads of trade routes, its leadership in the struggle against and defeat of the Tatars, and its gathering of neighboring principalities under Muscovite suzerainty.

By the 15th cent. Moscow had become the capital of the Russian national state, and in 1547 Grand Duke Ivan IV became the first to assume the title of czar. Moscow was also the seat of the Metropolitan (later Patriarch) of the Russian Orthodox Church from the early 14th cent. It has been an important commercial center since the Middle Ages and the center of many crafts. Burned by the Tatars in 1381 and again in 1572, the city was taken by the Poles during the Time of Troubles (see Russia). In 1611 the Muscovites, under the leadership of Kuzma Minin (a butcher) and Prince Dmitri Pozharski, attacked the Polish garrison and forced the remaining Polish troops to surrender in 1612. The large-scale growth of manufacturing in 17th-century Moscow, which necessitated an outlet to the sea, was instrumental in Peter I's decision to build St. Petersburg on the Baltic. The capital was transferred to St. Petersburg in 1712, but Moscow's cultural and social life continued uninterrupted, and the city remained Russia's religious center.

Built largely of wood until the 19th cent., Moscow suffered from numerous fires, the most notable of which occurred in the wake of Napoleon I's occupation in 1812. Count Rostopchin denied accusations that he had ordered the blaze ignited to drive out the French. The fire was most likely accidentally begun by French looters and was fanned by fanatic patriots among the few Russians who had remained behind when Napoleon entered the city. Whatever the cause, the fire sparked an anti-French uprising among the peasants, whose raids, along with the cruel winter, helped force Napoleon's retreat.

Rebuilt, Moscow developed from the 1830s as a major textile and metallurgical center. During the 19th and early 20th cent. it was the focus of the zemstvo cooperative and Slavophile movements and became a principal center of the labor movement and of social democracy. In 1918 the Soviet government transferred the capital back to Moscow and fostered spectacular economic growth in the city, whose population doubled between 1926 and 1939 and again between 1939 and 1992. During World War II Moscow was the goal of a two-pronged German offensive. Although the spearheads of the German columns were stopped only 20 to 25 mi (32–40 km) from the city's center, Moscow suffered virtually no war damage. The city hosted the Olympic Games in 1980.

Due to inadequate public funds, Moscow's infrastructure suffered after the 1991 demise of the Soviet Union. Also, an increase in automobile ownership brought traffic congestion and worsened air pollution. The city, however, began to attract foreign investment and became increasingly westernized. In the 1990s its energetic mayor, Yuri Luzhkov, launched many ambitious reconstruction projects and by the end of the decade Moscow was experiencing a real-estate boom.

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Moscow

Moscow is the capital city of Russia and the country's economic and cultural center.

Moscow was founded by Prince Yuri Vladimirovich Dolgoruky in 1147 on the banks of the Moscow River. Its earliest fortifications were raised on the present-day site of the Kremlin. Located in Russia's forest belt, the city was afforded a limited degree of protection from marauders from the south. Its location adjacent several rivers also made it a good trade center. By 1325, following the sacking of Kiev and the imposition of the Mongol Yoke, Moscow's princes obtained the sole right to rule over the Russian territories and collect tribute for the Golden Horde. The head of the Russian Orthodox church relocated to Moscow in recognition of the city's growing authority. A prince of Moscow, Ivan III, ultimately rid Russia of Mongol rule, following which the city became the capital of the expanding Muscovite state, which reunited the Russian lands by diplomacy and military conquest from the fourteenth to the eighteenth centuries.

During the period of expansion, the young state was thrown into chaos when Ivan IV passed away without leaving an heir. His unsuccessful efforts to regain access to the Baltic Sea and Black Sea had left the state further exhausted. In the ensuing power struggle, the country was invaded by several foreign armies before the Russian people were able once again to gain control of Moscow and elect a new tsar, marking the beginning of the Romanov dynasty (1613–1917).

In 1713, Peter the Great moved the Russian capital to St. Petersburg, which he had built on the Baltic Sea as "Russia's window to the West." Moscow, which Peter loathed for its traditional Russian ways, remained a major center of commerce and culture. Further, all Russian tsars were crowned in the city, providing a link with the past. Recognizing the city's historical importance, Napoleon occupied Moscow in 1812. He was forced from the city and defeated by the Russian Army as foreign invaders before him had been.

The Bolsheviks moved the capital of Russia back to Moscow when German forces threatened Petrograd (previously St. Petersburg) in 1918. When the Germans left Russian land later that year, the capital remained in Moscow and has not been moved since.

During the Soviet era, a metro and many new construction projects were undertaken in Moscow as the city grew in population and importance. At the same time, many cultural sites, particularly churches, were destroyed. As a consequence, Moscow lost much of its architectural integrity and ancient charm. In an effort to recover this, the Russian government has engaged in a number of restoration projects in the wake of the collapse of the Soviet Union. One of the most important has been the rebuilding of the Savior Cathedral, which was meant to mark the city's spiritual revival.

With a population of approximately 8.5 million people (swelling to more than 11 million on workdays), Moscow is the largest city in Russia and its capital. The Kremlin houses the Presidential Administration while both chambers of the national legislature are located just off of Red Square. The prime minister and his most important deputies have their offices in the White House, the building on the banks of the Moscow River that formerly was the location of the Russian Federation's legislature. The various ministries of the government, which report to the prime minister, are located throughout the city.

The city's government historically has occupied a high profile in national politics. This is particularly true of the mayor, who is directly elected by the city's residents for a four-year term. The mayor appoints the Moscow city government and is responsible for the administration of the city. Among the city's administrative responsibilities are managing more than half of the housing occupied by Muscovites, managing a primary health-care delivery system, operating a primary and secondary school system, providing social services and utility subsidies, maintaining roads, operating a public transportation system, and policing the city.

Legislative power lies with the Moscow City Duma, but the mayor has the power to submit bills as well as to veto legislation to which he objects. The city's citizens elect the City Duma in direct elections for a four-year term. It comprises thirty-five members elected from Moscow's electoral districts.

Not only is Moscow the country's political capital, it is also the country's major intellectual and cultural center, boasting numerous theaters and playhouses. Its attractions include the world-renowned Bolshoi Theater, Moscow State University, the Academy of Sciences, the Tretyakov Art Gallery, and the Lenin Library. Only St. Petersburg rivals it architecturally.

Not surprisingly, given its political and cultural importance, Moscow is Russia's economic capital as well, attracting a substantial portion of foreign investment. The city is the country's primary business center, accounting for 5.7 percent of industrial production. More importantly, it serves as the home for most of Russia's export-import industry as well as a major hub for international and national trade routes. As a consequence, the standard of living of Muscovites is well above that of the rest of the country. All of this owes in large part to the substantial degree of economic restructuring that has occurred in the city since 1991 in response to the introduction of a market economy. There has been particularly strong growth in finance and wholesale and retail trade.

The growth of Moscow's economy has not come without problems. Muscovites are increasingly concerned about crime as well as the plight of pensioners and the poor. They are also concerned about the strain being placed on the city's transportation system, increasing environmental pollution caused by the increased use of automobiles, and the degradation of the city's infrastructure, including its schools and health care system.

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Moscow

MOSCOW (Moskva). The etymology of Moskva and the question of whether the name was applied first to the city or to the river on which it is located both remain in dispute. Moscow is located in approximately the center of the East European plain on the Moscow River, a tributary of the Oka River, which flows into the Volga. Among distinguishing reasons for Moscow's rise to power over its neighbors in the fourteenth to sixteenth centuries are the following. First, being centrally located among East Slavic principalities, its trade routes stretched far in all directions. Second, due to its central location, Moscow was protected to some extent by distance from hostile neighbors to the west (Poland, Lithuania, Baltic Germans) and to the south and southeast (Tatars). Third, its political system was relatively
stable, thanks to long-lived rulers and to the adoption of primogeniture in the royal dynasty, which made princely succession more predictable than in rival principalities where succession was frequently a matter of rivalry among brothers and sons. And, fourth, Moscow princes frequently proved able, shrewd, and adept in acquiring neighboring principalities and in making strategic alliances with or against various Tatar khanates.

As Moscow grew, the original fortified settlement, or gorod, became the central citadel of a city that expanded outward in roughly concentric circles, with radial streets emanating from the citadel. By the sixteenth century, the citadel was being called the Kremlin (from kreml, a word that apparently originally denoted an oaken stockade); its walls, faced with red brick, had been reconstructed by Italian engineers and encompassed the present territory of the Kremlin, some seventy acres. During the course of the sixteenth century, districts of the expanding city were encircled with their own protective walls: first Kitai Posad/Gorod, a commercial district east of the Kremlin and containing Red Square; then the Belyi (White) Gorod, the walls of which are marked by the current Ring Boulevard around the combined Kremlin and Kitai Gorod; and finally, the Zemlianoi Gorod, whose walls made a full circle around the city, crossing the Moscow River. The latter walls defined the official city limits until the eighteenth century and were located along the present Garden Ring Road.

During the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, a protective semicircle of six fortified monasteries was built up outside the city walls along the southern perimeter, guarding against the frequent incursions of Tatar forces from that direction. Those monasteries, now well within city limits, are, from west to east: Novodevichii, Donskoi, Daniilovskii, Simonov, Novospasskii, and Andronikov. Something of a city planning and masonry construction office (Prikaz kamennykh del) was founded in 1584, the principal mission of which was to encourage masonry construction instead of wood and to plan firebreak areas where construction was forbidden. Despite such efforts, 72 percent of Moscow buildings were still wooden as of 1811.

Trustworthy population statistics for old Moscow are lacking. Frequently cited estimates number 30,000–40,000 residents in the fourteenth century, 100,000 in the sixteenth century, 200,000 in the mid-seventeenth century, although all those estimates may be too high. Moscow's first systematic census, in 1701, counted 16,358 households, from which an estimated population of 200,000 residents has been proposed. The first official census of individuals was in 1784, when the population count was 217,000, a figure reduced by substantial losses during the plague of 1771. The next detailed census was in 1811, when the population of Moscow was measured at 262,000 (another "official" document says 270,000).

With the shift of government to St. Petersburg and the buildup of that city beginning in the early eighteenth century, Moscow was reduced to second place politically. The three-hundred-year rivalry between Moscow, the old capital symbolizing traditional Muscovite Russian culture, versus St. Petersburg,
the new capital representing Russia's turn to western European cultural norms, was well underway in the eighteenth century. Under Empresses Elizabeth (ruled 1741–1762) and Catherine II the Great (ruled 1762–1796), some western European baroque and classical architecture was introduced in Moscow—the beginnings of a partial "St. Petersburgization" of the former capital. Moscow was still honored ceremonially, in that emperors and empresses, up to and including Nicholas II, continued to travel to Moscow for a formal coronation in the Kremlin Dormition (Assumption) Cathedral. The relative neglect of Moscow, however, is exemplified by two grandiose projects in Moscow that Catherine started but then decided to abandon: a gigantic reconstruction of the Kremlin in Classical style, and a huge neo-Gothic palace at Tsaritsyno, on the outskirts of town.

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Moscow

Moscow (Moskva) Capital of Russia and largest city in Europe, on the River Moskva. The site has been inhabited since Neolithic times, but Russian records do not mention it until 1147. It had become a principality by the end of the 13th century, and in 1367 the first stone walls of the Kremlin were constructed. By the end of the 14th century, Moscow emerged as the focus of Russian opposition to the Mongols. Polish troops occupied the city in 1610, but were driven out two years later. Moscow was the capital of the Grand Duchy of Russia from 1547 to 1712, when the capital moved to St Petersburg. In 1812 Napoleon and his army occupied Moscow, but were forced to flee when the city burned to the ground. In 1918, following the Russian Revolution, it became the capital of the Soviet Union. The failure of the German army to seize the city in 1941 was the Nazis' first major setback in World War II. The Kremlin is the centre of the city, and the administrative heart of the country. Adjoining it are Red Square, the Lenin Mausoleum, and the 16th-century cathedral of Basil the Beatified. Industries: metalworking, oil-refining, motor vehicles, film-making, precision instruments, chemicals, publishing, wood and paper products, tourism. Pop. (1999 est.) 8,296,000.

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Moscow (city, United States)

The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed.

Copyright The Columbia University Press

Moscow (mŏs´kō), city (1990 pop. 18,519), seat of Latah co., NW Idaho, at the Wash. line; inc. 1887. It is a trade center for a lumber and farm area where wheat, peas, lentils, and dairy items are produced. There are factories that manufacture semiconductors, erosion control blankets, concrete, and wooden cabinets. Originally part of the Nez Percé Reservation, it was first settled by whites in 1871. The Univ. of Idaho is there, as well as a historical museum and a U.S. government forest sciences laboratory.

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